November 2004 Archives
What the Federal Security Service, or FSB — the main KGB successor — truly seeks is not to protect Russia’s state secrets but to use that concept for repressive purposes.
The guilty verdict passed by the Krasnoyarsk Region Court on 53-year-old physicist Valentin Danilov is the second such case to end in a severe sentence passed by a court of jury in an espionage trial. Another Russian scholar, Igor Sutyagin, was sentenced to 15 years for espionage earlier this year. The situation is strange to say the least.
Last December Valentin Danilov, charged with passing classified information to China and defrauding the university where he worked of $15,500, was acquitted by the majority of jurors, with eight votes to four. Russia’s Supreme Court then overturned the verdict claiming procedural violations by the defense and ordered a retrial. The arguments put forward by the prosecutors, however, in their appeal against the initial verdict seemed particularly doubtful — in fact, the prosecutors complained that the defense had sounded more convincing and pointed out to inconsistencies in the evidence presented by the prosecutors.
The re-trial ended with a new jury passing a guilty verdict. No new evidence was presented in court.
It transpires that a sentence worth 14 years of one’s life is subject to the rules of roulette — i.e. depends solely on the composition and disposition of the jury.
A lot depends on the composition of the jury. In particular, Russian law conveniently does not ban security officers from serving as jurors. But this is not the only point. The point is that the jurors never passed a guilty verdict in the Danilov case at all.
The problem is that unlike, say, murder cases tried by jury, where “the people’s judges” have to decide whether a prisoner in the dock killed or not, in high treason cases they are not requested to decide whether the accused “betrayed or not”.
The question of whether the information passed by Danilov to China contained a state secret was decided by the court, and what’s more, the court did so on the basis of extremely ambiguous criteria — in fact, on the basis of a report presented by the agencies concerned.
After the sentence was pronounced a regional FSB spokesman commented on it as follows: “The court concluded that the physicist had passed to the Chinese data they needed for implementing a defense project.”
A highly obscure remark, indeed. Actually, the act described in such a way clearly cannot be punishable under criminal law. After all, it is clear that far from all the data required to implement a defense project are classified. However, that was the key issue in Danilov’s case.
For several years now the FSB has been waging an indefatigable campaign against lawyers, courts, human rights advocates in so-called spy trials, dozens of which were launched by the emboldened FSB after Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer himself, became president.
Such trials are initiated at the very top. In particular, according to Danilov’s own sources, after his acquittal in December last year FSB director Nikolai Partrushev summoned the Krasnoyarsk FSB chief Subbotin, gave him a severe dressing down and demanded that the case be sent for re-trial and end in a guilty verdict.
When the subject-matter of a dispute is a state secret, the interpretation and concept of which remains highly obscure, the case usually remains closed to the public at large.
In fact, the FSB pursues a policy whereby it is the prerogative of that agency alone to decide what can be considered a state secret and what cannot. Furthermore, a person can be told by the FSB that he has divulged a state secret long after the information was passed.
You would think that to prevent leaks the Federal Security Service and the lawmakers would be interested in developing clear-cut regulations concerning the concept of a state secret and the rules for handling classified information.
In truth however, things are very different. The FSB is interested in making the interpretation of the concept of a state secret and the provisions governing liability for high treason as ambiguous as possible, so the agency can apply them at its own discretion against as many people as it finds necessary.
This is the main reason the FSB continues to demand draconian prison sentences in cases where the alleged guilt, if anything, remains unproven. And this goes to show that the FSB’s true goal is not to protect state secrets but to preserve a repressive mechanism based on the free interpretation of the law. And this is what led renowned Russian scholar and Nobel Prize winner Vitaly Ginzburg in recent televised remarks to compare current espionage trials, including Danilov’s trial, with the show trials of the year 1937.
Igor Sutyagin has been transferred to a high-security colony in the city of Sarapul (Udmurt region). His mailing address there is
Igor Vyacheslavovich Sutyagin
427965, Respublika Udmurtiya, g. Sarapul
ul. Raskolnikova, 53-A, YaCh-91/5, 14 otryad
RUSSIA
If you write to him, please make sure that you copy all fields as they appear here. If possible, please use the Russian-language address below (copy and paste it into MS Word):
Èãîðü Âÿ÷åñëàâîâè÷ Ñóòÿãèí
427965, Ðåñïóáëèêà Óäìóðòèÿ, ã. Ñàðàïóë,
óë. Ðàñêîëüíèêîâà, 53-À, ß×-91/5, 14 îòðÿä.
RUSSIA
You could also download this
mailing label PDF File to print out a Russian-language mailing label.
MOSCOW, Nov 24 (Reuters) A Russian scientist convicted of spying for China was sentenced today to 14 years in jail, in a case rights groups fear was politically driven to stop scientists working with foreigners.
Physicist Valentin Danilov was initially acquitted of selling state secrets to Russia's southern neighbour, but was retried after security services complained about the verdict.
''Danilov was found guilty of treason ... he gave away Russian state secrets and embezzled state money,'' said Sergei Blinov, deputy head of the FSB security service in Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region, where the trial took place.
''The information he gave damaged Russian security,'' he told Russian television. ''This information was needed by China for military purposes.'' Scientists and human rights groups condemned the conviction, saying it reminded them of Stalin-era trials used to crush political dissidents.
''The decision in Valentin Danilov's case is causing irreparable damage to our state,'' Vitaly Ginzburg, a physicist who won the Nobel Prize in 2003 and is part of a committee to defend scientists from political attack, told Ekho Moskvy radio.
Danilov's case is the latest in a string of spying convictions of scientists and journalists who have worked with foreign organisations brought since President Vladimir Putin, himself a former spy, was elected in 2000.
A second member of the Social Committee to Defend Scientists, veteran activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva, said the FSB was casting around for scapegoats in prosecuting scientists.
''The FSB does not have the brains or professionalism to actually find spies, so it attacks the easiest target by arresting people who work with foreigners -- diplomats and rights activists could be next,'' she said.
Another scientist told Ekho Moskvy it could stop academics, who often have to look abroad for funding, working altogether.
''...It creates an impossible situation. People wonder whether they should work at all in such a country,'' said physicist Sergei Kapitsa, well-known nationally for making science accessible to ordinary Russians.
Danilov, who was accused of selling a device designed to examine ways to destroy satellites and of embezzling university funds, will appeal in a higher court.
''Of course we will appeal to the Supreme Court and to the (European) court for human rights. I consider the court's decision illegal and unjust,'' said his lawyer Yelena Yevmenova.
''Danilov said that he does not consider himself guilty, not because he is stubborn but because he doesn't know what he is supposed to be guilty of.'' Danilov is the second scientist convicted this year. Nuclear expert Igor Sutyagin was convicted in April of passing secrets to a British firm fronting for US intelligence.
Russian human rights activists will fight to free scientist Yuri Sutyagin, sentenced to 15 years in prison for treason, and Valentin Danilov, on trial for similar charges involving selling what prosecutors allege are state secrets.
Both scientists have said that the information they allegedly “sold” was in the public domain. Sutyagin was tried by a court of jury.
“We will fight to free Danilov and Sutyagin,” Liudmila Alexeyeva, chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying at a press conference Wednesday.
“I just can’t allow myself to think that Danilov and Sutyagin will have to serve that sentence that was handed down to Sutyagin and may be handed down to Danilov,” Alexeyeva said.
She added that the group’s activists would appeal to the European Court for Human Rights on the scientists’ behalf.
Ernst Cherny, a representative of the scientists’ rights committee, said that half of the jury in the Danilov case had access to secret documents and “depends on the FSB in one way or another”.
Danilov was taken into custody on Nov. 10 during a court hearing. His trial continues.
